Does anyone know of a site where you can compare total returns vs time for two or more funds in chart form? I am looking for something similar to M*'s "Growth of $10k" chart which compares fund returns with category averages and an index but I want to compare two funds.

A scientist looks for THE answer to a problem, an engineer looks for AN answer and lawyers ONLY have opinions. Investing is not a science.

I use Vanguard's website for Vanguard mutual funds. They have a good charting section to show growth of $10K (total returns which includes reinvestment of dividends). And you can compare two funds side by side (I think the most is 3 funds).

Wish I knew of another site that does this for non-Vanguard funds and individual stocks. Other charting websites do not show reinvested dividends.

the deluxe charting toolkit at investor.msn.com does this for you. Distributions in the last 6 months do not appear to be in the database yet, but will be there at some point. The charting tool does exactly what you want. You can even set the starting value to any number.

Yahoo is definitely price only. I provided that as a comparison to show that StockCharts is showing the total return. Zoom in to Dec 2006... If it was only the NAV being plotted, there would be a large drop (as in the Yahoo chart - which can't be zoomed as well).

I looked around on their site for a description of what is being plotted, and sadly couldn't find it. Nevertheless my experience is that it shows reinvested divindends and distributions.

stockcharts definitely does total return. Compare PIMCO Real Estate Real Return PRRSX vs. RWR, the index its based off. On Yahoo the giant 40% end of year payout in PRRSX will show up. On stockcharts it doesn't.

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were a charting tool where you could enter a whole portfolio of symbols and back-test its entire performance? Even better than just a chart, also include a computation of the annualized return and the standard deviation. And allow you to adjust the percentages of each symbol to make up the 100%. And then swap in and out other symbols.

Our would that be too seductive and entice us into doing too much data mining?

The PerfChart provides you with all the tools you need to make a solid relative performance analysis. Each ticker you have chosen to chart is given a color and appears at the top of the page as a tab. The beginning of your period will always start at 0%. For example, the chart above shows that the S&P 500 has risen 10.0% over the past 200-days; it's performance relative to 200 days ago is what is being plotted.

The horizontal axis displays the range of the period you select (e.g. 200 days), while the vertical axis measures the percent change in the price.

but if you look at the Pimco Reit example it is obviously not price but total return.

A scientist looks for THE answer to a problem, an engineer looks for AN answer and lawyers ONLY have opinions. Investing is not a science.

Paul Douglas Boyer wrote:Wouldn't it be awesome if there were a charting tool where you could enter a whole portfolio of symbols and back-test its entire performance? Even better than just a chart, also include a computation of the annualized return and the standard deviation. And allow you to adjust the percentages of each symbol to make up the 100%. And then swap in and out other symbols.

Paul Douglas Boyer wrote:Wouldn't it be awesome if there were a charting tool where you could enter a whole portfolio of symbols and back-test its entire performance? Even better than just a chart, also include a computation of the annualized return and the standard deviation. And allow you to adjust the percentages of each symbol to make up the 100%. And then swap in and out other symbols.

bnes wrote:Sadly, after all these years this thread is still quite relevant. Even a broker like Schwab is largely stuck in a price only charting world.
I found a very nice TR/DRIP calculator at a little known website:

Doc in 2007 wrote:Does anyone know of a site where you can compare total returns vs time for two or more funds in chart form? I am looking for something similar to M*'s "Growth of $10k" chart which compares fund returns with category averages and an index but I want to compare two funds.

Morningstar now does the job.

A scientist looks for THE answer to a problem, an engineer looks for AN answer and lawyers ONLY have opinions. Investing is not a science.

Doc wrote:Doc in 2007 wrote:
Does anyone know of a site where you can compare total returns vs time for two or more funds in chart form? I am looking for something similar to M*'s "Growth of $10k" chart which compares fund returns with category averages and an index but I want to compare two funds.

I have to admit I did crank up the calculator to see how long ago it was since I started this thread.

A scientist looks for THE answer to a problem, an engineer looks for AN answer and lawyers ONLY have opinions. Investing is not a science.

Now for the advanced question: is there a calculator that can:
(1) work for equities or mutual funds
(2) calculate for taxable accounts, with dividends reinvested, but taxes taken out each year at some given rate (e.g. 28%)?

Now for the advanced question: is there a calculator that can:
(1) work for equities or mutual funds
(2) calculate for taxable accounts, with dividends reinvested, but taxes taken out each year at some given rate (e.g. 28%)?

1) Morningstar can do that too -- just chart the mutual fund first, then you can compare to total return of ETFs, stocks, or other funds. Here is a chart comparing Vanguard 500 Index to AT&T and Vanguard Total Stock Market: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 9#p2065344